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            "title": "Orthographic View of Jakobshavn Calving Front: 1851 to 2010",
            "description": "The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq, is located on the west coast of Greenland at Latitude 69 degrees N. The ice front, where the glacier calves into the sea, receded more than 40 km between 1850 and 2010. Between 1850 and 1964 the ice front retreated at a steady rate of about 0.3 km/yr, after which it occupied approximately the same location until 2001, receding 10km in three years. After 2005 the single icefront had retreated enough to split into distinct fronts for the smaller, northern tributary and the main southern trunk. The icestream flows in a deep trough which ends near the current glacier terminus. The bedrock topography is expected to stabilize the location of the icefront for the near future as the glacier continues to drawn ice from Greenland's interior. The movement of ice from glaciers on land into the ocean contributes to a rise in sea level. Jakobshavn Isbrae is Greenland's largest outlet glacier, draining 6.5 percent of Greenland's ice sheet area. This image is generated with an orthographic camera set to view the range from 51.372 W longitude to 49.212 W and from 68.94 N latitude to 69.39 N. The Landsat image shown in the background is a false color image of data collected on July 29, 2009. || ",
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            "id": 3619,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3619/",
            "page_type": "Visualization",
            "title": "A Tour of the Cryosphere 2009",
            "description": "The cryosphere consists of those parts of the Earth's surface where water is found in solid form, including areas of snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs. In these regions, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year. Since ice and snow exist relatively close to their melting point, they frequently change from solid to liquid and back again due to fluctuations in surface temperature. Although direct measurements of the cryosphere can be difficult to obtain due to the remote locations of many of these areas, using satellite observations scientists monitor changes in the global and regional climate by observing how regions of the Earth's cryosphere shrink and expand.This animation portrays fluctuations in the cryosphere through observations collected from a variety of satellite-based sensors. The animation begins in Antarctica, showing some unique features of the Antarctic landscape found nowhere else on earth. Ice shelves, ice streams, glaciers, and the formation of massive icebergs can be seen clearly in the flyover of the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica. A time series shows the movement of iceberg B15A, an iceberg 295 kilometers in length which broke off of the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000. Moving farther along the coastline, a time series of the Larsen ice shelf shows the collapse of over 3,200 square kilometers ice since January 2002. As we depart from the Antarctic, we see the seasonal change of sea ice and how it nearly doubles the apparent area of the continent during the winter.From Antarctica, the animation travels over South America showing glacier locations on this mostly tropical continent. We then move further north to observe daily changes in snow cover over the North American continent. The clouds show winter storms moving across the United States and Canada, leaving trails of snow cover behind. In a close-up view of the western US, we compare the difference in land cover between two years: 2003 when the region received a normal amount of snow and 2002 when little snow was accumulated. The difference in the surrounding vegetation due to the lack of spring melt water from the mountain snow pack is evident.As the animation moves from the western US to the Arctic region, the areas affected by permafrost are visible. As time marches forward from March to September, the daily snow and sea ice recede and reveal the vast areas of permafrost surrounding the Arctic Ocean.The animation shows a one-year cycle of Arctic sea ice followed by the mean September minimum sea ice for each year from 1979 through 2008. The superimposed graph of the area of Arctic sea ice at this minimum clearly shows the dramatic decrease in Artic sea ice over the last few years.While moving from the Arctic to Greenland, the animation shows the constant motion of the Arctic polar ice using daily measures of sea ice activity. Sea ice flows from the Arctic into Baffin Bay as the seasonal ice expands southward. As we draw close to the Greenland coast, the animation shows the recent changes in the Jakobshavn glacier. Although Jakobshavn receded only slightly from 1964 to 2001, the animation shows significant recession from 2001 through 2009. As the animation pulls out from Jakobshavn, the effect of the increased flow rate of Greenland costal glaciers is shown by the thinning ice shelf regions near the Greenland coast.This animation shows a wealth of data collected from satellite observations of the cryosphere and the impact that recent cryospheric changes are making on our planet.For more information on the data sets used in this visualization, visit NASA's EOS DAAC website.Note: This animation is an update of the animation 'A Short Tour of the Cryosphere', which is itself an abridged version of the animation 'A Tour of the Cryosphere'. The popularity of the earlier animations and their continuing relevance prompted us to update the datasets in parts of the animation and to remake it in high definition. In certain cases, our experiences in using the earlier work have led us to tweak the presentation of some of the material to make it clearer. Our thanks to Dr. Robert Bindschadler for suggesting and supporting this remake. || ",
            "release_date": "2009-09-01T18:00:00-04:00",
            "update_date": "2024-10-09T15:44:24.651400-04:00",
            "main_image": {
                "id": 496509,
                "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003619/Tour_Cryosphere_00780.png",
                "filename": "Tour_Cryosphere_00780.png",
                "media_type": "Image",
                "alt_text": "The complete narrated visualizationThis video is also available on our YouTube channel.",
                "width": 1920,
                "height": 1080,
                "pixels": 2073600
            }
        },
        {
            "id": 3460,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3460/",
            "page_type": "Visualization",
            "title": "Change in Elevation over Greenland with Alternate Color Scale",
            "description": "Changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are critical in quantifying forecasts for sea level rise. Since its launch in January 2003, the ICESat elevation satellite has been measuring the change in thickness of these ice sheets. This image of Greenland shows the changes in elevation over the Greenland ice sheet between 2003 and 2006, The white regions indicate a slight thickening, while the blue shades indicate a thinning of the ice sheet. Gray indicates areas where no change in elevation was measured. || ",
            "release_date": "2007-09-21T00:00:00-04:00",
            "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:55:34.418563-04:00",
            "main_image": {
                "id": 507362,
                "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003460/Greenland_elev_chg.4938.jpg",
                "filename": "Greenland_elev_chg.4938.jpg",
                "media_type": "Image",
                "alt_text": "This image shows changes in the elevation over the Greenland ice sheet as colors displayed over topography of Greenland measured by ICESat.",
                "width": 2560,
                "height": 1920,
                "pixels": 4915200
            }
        }
    ],
    "sources": [],
    "products": [],
    "newer_versions": [],
    "older_versions": [],
    "alternate_versions": [
        {
            "id": 12178,
            "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12178/",
            "page_type": "Produced Video",
            "title": "Sea Ice Maximum/Operation IceBridge Live Shots",
            "description": "B-roll and canned interviews will be added on Thursday, March 24 || Arctic_sea_ice.jpg (640x427) [210.8 KB] || Arctic_sea_ice_searchweb.png (320x180) [109.2 KB] || Arctic_sea_ice_thm.png (80x40) [7.1 KB] || ",
            "release_date": "2016-03-22T11:00:00-04:00",
            "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:47.723413-04:00",
            "main_image": {
                "id": 426031,
                "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012100/a012178/Arctic_sea_ice.jpg",
                "filename": "Arctic_sea_ice.jpg",
                "media_type": "Image",
                "alt_text": "B-roll and canned interviews will be added on Thursday, March 24",
                "width": 640,
                "height": 427,
                "pixels": 273280
            }
        }
    ]
}